Sunday, August 28, 2011

My riding is in full force. On the road I have felt so strong. I have kept up on every Hub ride that I have been on - even up front a pulling on Conway during the Wed. Night ride which is fucking nuts for me! The past couple of Saturday's I have felt so strong(hanging with my buddy Phil). I even came in second in on the sprint two weeks ago behind Rock - Yeah me!

The USA Pro Cycling Challenge (or whatever it is called) has been fun to watch on the tube - a few Hubbers took time off work and traveled out West to catch the action first hand. It was cool to see Levi and all of the American's ruling the roost - I really wish Chris Horner raced - I like him. The best sign by far: (courtesy of Support the Tour of Missouri Facebook site)

TRACK RACING

I have had a blast at track this summer (The Faggin, although weighing a ton, was a strong bike for the season. Maybe next year I can upgrade to an Omnium with some deep dish wheels - that would be nice - I picked up Kevin's bike and I think his bike weighed as much as one wheel on my bike) but it has come to an end. The one thing I have not been able to do is transfer my road power to the track. It is kindof weird - I can hammer the shit out of a road race or crit, but on the track, I am slow. I need those long races where I can build up speed - and track is not like that!

State Individuals Track re-cap ( forgot my phone - so I only have one picture thanks to Kevin).
5 Individual races:

Match Sprint (3 laps) - God did I suck at this race. I was the first out!!! AHHHH! I have no speed. On the first race, I was against 2 strong guys - both made the finals, one came in forth and the other came in second - so I was smoked. the next stage was the repechage - I was against Casey and Soli and when we came to turn 4 on the second lap, I was third, great position - we came to a tracks stand, seeing who would go first - I was about ready to go, when Soli jumped and the three of us sped out. Although I stuck Casey, I was not able to take him at the line - he beat me by a wheel or so - so I was out. Andrew for The Hub won first place.

Points Race (30 lap) - Points has always been my worst race - and I lived up to it. I came in -5, which for me is not the worst - but it is what it is. Once we hit about lap 15, I started feeling fine - but the race was over for me.

Pursuit (3K - 9.3 laps) - This was my best race by far - I came in forth! I missed a bronze meddle by less than 1 second! AHHHH! I can't remember my time - the guy who won it beat by at least ten seconds - but I would have loved a meddle - bummer. This was a typical track race for me. I had a terrible start, took me a couple laps to rev up and then I started to gain time. On the last lap, I had no sprint and just continued to cruise.

Scratch - I sat this one out - I was smoked and needed a rest. I was hoping for a good Kilo race and needed a breather.

Kilo - Should of raced the scratch! The Kilo sucked. Honestly, I was smoked by this point. That Points race followed quickly by the Pusuit smoked my for the day.

Oh well, no state jersey for me - but I had a blast. Honestly - I am think on working on track - maybe spending more time on it than I have been - It is a long year - we will see.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

I know it's been a couple of weeks - my wife and I went to Vegas for the week! Here is a picture from the Playboy Club. This chick's- I mean bunny's - tits were so big and sticking straight out - Judy and I could have used them for a dinner table and had a 7 course meal on them and still had room.

Ever since I have returned from Vegas, I have been feeling great. I have been getting faster with less effort and dropping a couple of lbs, I went to track last Thursday and did great. I raced a 5 lap Scratch and a 7 and 8 lap Tempo race. Judy and I rode to the track and it turned out to be a beautiful night. Judy took some great pictures of a race - here they are - I think I came in forth - but really seventh because I did not pick up any points until the end.

My rides with the Hub, which provides a nice measure of my abilty, have been awesome. The Saturday and Sunday we returned I overslept - Vegas - but last Saturday I got out. It was a fast ride, but I was feeling really strong. I was able to cover every break and kept with the lead group - I felt really good. As we turned on Geyer I had a flat - AHHHH! - everyone slowed up, but I told them all to go, fixed the flat and rode in. Still a good ride. After the ride I went to the Bread Co. with Phil, Stephanie, Bill, Todd, Matthew and Steve.

Today I did the Wednesday Night Throwdown. It was super fast - 21.2 average with 266 avg. watts. Once again I felt great. I moved up to front on Clayton - unheard of I know - I was up front for a huge chunk of the ride. I struggled a tad on Conway, but that was just because of a huge acceleration by Brad (I found out later), but I was able to recover. The whole ride felt great. I am looking forward to Gateway and doing some racing.

Tomorrow I will be doing track again and next week I plan on racing TNW.